Recently, the opening ceremony and art evening of the 11th Lancang-Mekong River Basin National Culture and Art Festival was held in Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. The picture shows Chinese artists performing the dance "Beautiful Legend".
Photo by Hu Chao (Xinhua News Agency).
On December 25, the Fourth Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leaders' Meeting was held in the form of a summit, which was attended by the leaders of China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. With the theme of "Promoting the Construction of a Community with a Shared Future for Lancang-Mekong Countries and Working Together for Modernization", the conference also issued the Naypyidaw Declaration.
The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation is the first new type of regional cooperation mechanism with the goal of building a community with a shared future and is jointly discussed, jointly built and shared by the six countries in the basin. A benchmark for South-South cooperation.
Maintain the Lancang-Mekong speed.
Unleash the vitality of the Lancang-Mekong region.
Lu Guangsheng, dean of the Institute of International Relations of Yunnan University and director of the Lancang-Mekong Sub-Regional Research Center of Yunnan University, said in an interview with this reporter that the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation has been carried out in an orderly manner and achieved fruitful results around the three pillars of "political security, economic and sustainable development, and social and cultural development" and the six priority areas of "connectivity, production capacity cooperation, cross-border economy, water resources, agriculture and poverty alleviation".
High-level leadership leads the quality and upgrading of cooperation. The leaders of China and the Mekong countries have interacted closely with each other, guiding the friendly cooperation between the six countries. The leaders of the six countries attended the Fourth Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leaders' Meeting. The meeting focused on promoting the building of a community with a shared future for the Lancang-Mekong countries, and made positive contributions to the common development of countries in the region and the joint march towards modernization. Not long ago, the Eighth Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers' Meeting was held in Beijing. Focusing on the theme of "Jointly Moving Towards Modernization and Cultivating New Advantages in Sub-regional Development", the meeting reviewed the progress of the LMC and planned the key tasks for the next stage.
Economic and trade exchanges have been accelerated in an all-round way. In 2022, the annual value between China and the Mekong countries reached US$416.7 billion, double that of seven years ago. According to the data of China's National Development and Reform Commission, China and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation countries have reached a new level of bilateral cooperation, and China has become the largest partner of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, of which Vietnam has grown into China's fourth largest partner and the largest partner within ASEAN. The rapid development of China's cooperation with the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation countries in the fields of tourism, construction, traditional Chinese medicine and other fields has maintained the speed of the Lancang-Mekong and unleashed the vitality of the Lancang-Mekong region.
People's livelihood and well-being continued to improve. The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation was born and thrived because of water. At present, the six Lancang-Mekong countries have implemented practical cooperation projects such as river basin planning and flood and drought disaster prevention and control, and jointly promoted an information sharing platform for water resources cooperation. Cooperation projects such as the Lancang-Mekong Ganquan Action Plan and the Green Lancang-Mekong Plan have been steadily promoted, effectively improving the level of ecological and environmental governance in the basin areas.
The people of Lancang-Mekong know each other well. All parties continued to increase investment in education, culture, women, poverty alleviation, sports and other areas of people's livelihood, and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation became more and more colorful. A few days ago, the 11th Lancang River Mekong River Basin National Culture and Art Festival was held in Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations in the Lancang-Mekong region have been deepened, building a new bridge for people-to-people bonds.
Drink a river of water together.
It's like a family.
The six Lancang-Mekong countries are connected by mountains and rivers and cultures, and they drink the same river water together, like a family. As a new type of sub-regional cooperation mechanism based on extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits among the basin countries, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) has been able to develop rapidly and achieve remarkable results in just a few years, mainly due to the fact that the six countries adhere to the principle of good-neighborly and friendly cooperation, uphold the principle of development first, practice the concept of mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation, and pursue the original aspiration of people-oriented cooperation.
Achieving industrialization and modernization and promoting regional development are the common aspirations of all countries in the Lancang-Mekong region. Driven by common aspirations, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation has achieved remarkable results. Xu Liping, a researcher at the Institute of Asia-Pacific and Global Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, said, "The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation is the first new type of sub-regional cooperation mechanism jointly initiated and participated by the six Lancang-Mekong countries. The LMC has grown from scratch and from budding to flourishing, and has achieved fruitful development results. ”
Lu Guangsheng believes that since the official launch of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation in 2016, in just seven years, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation has developed rapidly and achieved remarkable results, an important reason is that the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation countries have practiced the cooperation purpose of development first, continuously transformed the economic complementarity of all countries into mutual assistance in development, and created a coordinated and interconnected development pattern.
The people's livelihood-oriented cooperation concept has provided a steady stream of internal driving force for the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation to blossom in various fields. Yang Baoyun, a professor at Peking University's School of International Studies, pointed out that the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation has effectively improved the living standards of local residents and gained a broad mass base. Local residents have taken the initiative to participate in the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation project, forming a two-way feedback mechanism of benefit sharing and win-win cooperation, which has effectively promoted regional coordinated development and people-to-people bonds.
The LMC adheres to a people-centered approach and vigorously promotes cooperation in education, health, poverty alleviation and other fields that are urgently needed by the people. The results of the LMC have benefited the people in the basin and have been supported by the local people. Lu Guangsheng said. For example, according to the data of the Yunnan Provincial Department of Commerce, in 2022, Yunnan will recruit 5,755 students from the five Mekong countries, and the provincial ** scholarship will benefit nearly 300 students from Mekong countries.
As pointed out in an article published in Cambodia's Khmer Times, in the face of multiple challenges to the ecological environment and economic development, the LMC mechanism is striving to improve the level of regional economic integration and promote balanced and sustainable development of the region.
Inject power.
Contribute to regional prosperity and stability.
At present, the LMC has become an important platform for maintaining peace and promoting the modernization process in the region, and all countries have a positive attitude towards further deepening the cooperation mechanism. Yang Baojun said.
Over the years, the six Lancang-Mekong countries have upheld the Lancang-Mekong spirit of "development first, consultation on an equal footing, pragmatism and efficiency, openness and inclusiveness", and have steadily promoted cooperation in various fields. At present, all Lancang-Mekong countries are at an important juncture of accelerating development and modernization. All parties are focusing on regional stability and prosperity, cultivating new advantages in regional development, and striving for common development and joint efforts towards modernization.
At the 8th Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers' Meeting, China announced that the LMC will focus on six directions in the next stage: First, building a closer community with a shared future;The second is to create a more interconnected economic development belt;The third is to create a safer environment for developmentFourth, the development prospect of moving towards more digitalization;Fifth, deepen people-to-people cooperation with more distinctive characteristicsSixth, advocate the concept of more inclusive cooperation.
The LMC has continuously consolidated the political foundation of regional cooperation, clarified common development goals, and further expanded investment, improved industrial and industrial chains on the basis of existing economic cooperation, and promoted the transformation of the regional economy to high-quality development. Yang Baojun said, "Breathe together, share fate." It is believed that the LMC will further strengthen the building of a community with a shared future. ”
The Lancang-Mekong countries have continuously clarified their cooperation goals, improved their cooperation mechanisms, and taken into account development and security, and planned key areas of cooperation. This fully demonstrates that the Lancang-Mekong countries are earnestly practicing the spirit of a community with a shared future, seeking common development through mutual trust and cooperation, and facing challenges with sincere assistance. Lu Guangsheng said, "The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation has injected strong impetus into the modernization of the Lancang-Mekong countries and contributed to regional prosperity and stability. ”
The LMC will continue to develop in the direction of high-quality cooperation, deepen the existing cooperation framework, enrich the content of cooperation on the basis of cooperation in various fields, and effectively improve the level of cooperation. Continuously improving the sense of gain and happiness of the people in the Lancang-Mekong region is the long-term goal of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation. Xu Liping commented.
Reporter Xu Lingyuan.
*: People's ** Overseas Edition.